Day 26. Psalm 63:3

This is one of the first psalms that made me realize why David was so special to God. Here is this man, wandering in the wilderness, that too because the LORD had specifically asked him to do so and here he sings, Lord, my lips shall praise You because Your loving kindness is better than life.

While it had appealed to me as soon as I read this Psalm, it took a while for me to make this verse mine. There were trying conditions in my life and some devastating failures I had to face, yet my lips never stopped praising the LORD and I was puffed up with pride as if I am the next David. For, everyone told me that failures and sufferings are the wilderness in Christian life. Oh, how wrong they are, how very much wrong.

Wilderness is much more or you can say, much less than those failures and sufferings. It is boring and it is mundane. Life goes on. Nothing happens. What is the difference between last year and this year? Nothing, except we are older by one year – that kind of boring. Because in the wilderness, life remains as it is. No planting, no harvest, nothing. You are expecting that one day, all these would be over, except, you don’t know when and how. As the drudgery of life went on, suddenly I realized that somewhere my lips had stopped praising the LORD. I was not complaining against Him, but the songs had stopped for there was no vitality in me. When you are suffering or facing failures, it was different. I was feeling pain and I knew I was alive. But here, the wilderness, made me numb. Life will go on as it is. Now, the LORD made me realize why David was someone closer to His own heart.

I am not saying that now I am praising the LORD with my lips continuously. But I have realized that in wilderness sojourn, the loving kindness of the LORD is better than life. And my lips will praise Him. Amen.